Dynamic causal modelling (DCM) for steady-state responses (SSR) is a framework for inferring the mechanisms that underlie observed electrophysiological spectra, using biologically plausible generative models of neuronal dynamics. In this paper, we examine the dynamic repertoires of nonlinear conductance-based neural population models and propose a generative model of their power spectra. Our model comprises an ensemble of interconnected excitatory and inhibitory cells, where synaptic currents are mediated by fast, glutamatergic and GABAergic receptors and slower voltage-gated NMDA receptors. We explore two formulations of how hidden neuronal states (depolarisation and conductances) interact: through their mean and variance (mean-field model) or through their mean alone (neural-mass model). Both rest on a nonlinear Fokker–Planck description of population dynamics, which can exhibit bifurcations (phase transitions). We first characterise these phase transitions numerically: by varying critical model parameters, we elicit both fixed points and quasiperiodic dynamics that reproduce the spectral characteristics (~ 2–100 Hz) of real electrophysiological data. We then introduce a predictor of spectral activity using centre manifold theory and linear stability analysis. This predictor is based on sampling the system's Jacobian over the orbits of hidden neuronal states. This predictor behaves consistently and smoothly in the region of phase transitions, which permits the use of gradient descent methods for model inversion. We demonstrate this by inverting generative models (DCMs) of SSRs, using simulated data that entails phase transitions.
